Sony to introduce new PlayStation3 with bigger memory

July 6, 2010

Attendees play video games at the Sony Playstation booth in Los Angeles, California, in 2009. Electronics giant Sony said Tuesday it will introduce an upgraded PlayStation 3 videogame console in Japan at the end of July, with a bigger memory and a new white version on offer.

Electronics giant Sony said Tuesday it will introduce an upgraded PlayStation 3 videogame console in Japan at the end of July, with a bigger memory and a new white version on offer.

The company will sell a 160-gigabyte model for 29,980 yen (341 dollars), the same price at which the Tokyo-based company had previously offered its 120-gigabyte console, it said in a statement.

It will also introduce a 320-gigabyte model for 34,980 yen. Both models will be available from July 29 in Japan. Sony did not indicate worldwide release plans in the statement.

The move comes amid heightened competition between Sony and gaming rival Microsoft, with both giants looking to release motion-sensing controllers later this year in response to the runaway success of Nintendo's Wii.

PlayStation Move wands will hit the market in time for the year-end holiday shopping season in the United States.

The devices let PS3 play be controlled with swings, jabs and other natural movements instead of toggle-and-button commands that have been trademarks of play on PS3 and rival Xbox 360 consoles by Microsoft.

Microsoft's Kinet technology will use a 3-D camera and gesture recognition software to let people play videogames using natural body movements instead of hand-held controllers.

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Yes, you can get a 500GB 3.5 hard drive for 60 dollars... but a 2.5 which is the PS3 specification (a laptop hard drive) is 500 dollars for a 500 gig and $300+ for 300 gigs.

Finally its not misleading, Memory is memory, the ability for your computer to recall data. If you have taken Computer Science or did a simple wiki search you will know there are at least 3 kinds of MEMORY. Processor, Ram, and Hard Drive. And since the dawn of the PS3, xbox360 Memory has ALWAYS = Hard Drive for consoles... Kids do your research.

Yes, you can get a 500GB 3.5 hard drive for 60 dollars... but a 2.5 which is the PS3 specification (a laptop hard drive) is 500 dollars for a 500 gig and $300+ for 300 gigs.

Finally its not misleading, Memory is memory, the ability for your computer to recall data. If you have taken Computer Science or did a simple wiki search you will know there are at least 3 kinds of MEMORY. Processor, Ram, and Hard Drive. And since the dawn of the PS3, xbox360 Memory has ALWAYS = Hard Drive for consoles... Kids do your research.

I have taken computer science courses. Nobody referred to storage as memory. When you talked about 32 bit systems and memory addressing, nobody even momentarily thought about storage, only RAM. Maybe memory can mean storage, but in computer circles, it doesn't.

If you have taken computer science courses then you Should know the three kinds of memory. Volatile memory is memory on the processor, and the RAM, while Non-Volitile Memory is devices such as hard disks, tape, floppy drives, and optic disks. It is still memory. Technicality aside Memory most often does refers to Volitile memory (yes RAM), but at the same time I have yet to remember a single instance when any console came out with more ram. I may be wrong but I'm willing to bet at most it has happened once since the release of PS3 or xBox 360. While Both consoles keep putting out more and more Hard Drive Space (even though the PS3's can be switched out). You have to remember while consoles are getting closer and closer to PC's most consumers still do not view them as such so 'rules' about the computer world do not exactly apply the same... yet.

If you have taken computer science courses then you Should know the three kinds of memory. Volatile memory is memory on the processor, and the RAM, while Non-Volitile Memory is devices such as hard disks, tape, floppy drives, and optic disks. It is still memory. Technicality aside Memory most often does refers to Volitile memory (yes RAM), but at the same time I have yet to remember a single instance when any console came out with more ram.

Yes, you can stop listing all three memory types. We all understand the different types of memory storage. Volatility doesn't define RAM vs. Storage. It just happens to be the way our current technology is set up. We could very well have non volatile RAM in the upcoming years. The point is, it's misleading to say "memory" and mean storage.

yes, we could have non-volatile ram in the future but that wasn't the point, the key point to all that is they are all listed under a type of MEMORY!

While you do not define it within your own personal definition of what constituents as computer memory, it doesn't mean that another group of people do not. As I said, Consoles are NOT PC's in the eyes of consumers, like macs, though they are NOW built very similar to a computer containing all the same bits and pieces (especially now), so it is also acceptable for them to have a slightly different common language (emphasis on common language).

Yes It sucks having different points of view, and different meanings to words, but thats why Software companies have Business analysis who spend a few days, weeks, and even months learning the common language of an industry. Its why we have Anthropologists learn new cultures and why the finger gesture for OK in the US means Okay, but A-Hole in Australia.

ArcainOne, I believe you believe the three memory types are "Volatile" and "Non-Volitile[sic]".

However there is no official authority for defining what computer memory should mean, and some antiquated professor or text book writer may sound authoritative but it is only an opinion.

The target audience purchasing PS3s, and everybody else, knows that memory has settled on referring to relatively fast semiconductor technology. Twenty years ago, or twenty years from now, it might mean something different. Technology is a fast paced changing ride, get used to it.

Is there any reason for this? Both xbox and ps are doing really shitty things. I don't want the same thing just with a bit more memory or smaller. Their technology is old, we need to next generation hardware in them.

regardless of all the nit picking of words to define "memory" you never see Hard Drive storage listed under memory in the specifications when you buy a computer. So that being said, the industry and the layman both refer to Hard Drives as Hard Drives. :) Memory is almost always referred to as Ram. Any computer retailer will tell you the same thing because that's what their stickers say.

Now I KNOW that isn't necessarily correct. But neither is calling a "photo copy" a "xerox" of something, yet we still let people get away with saying it. It's been adopted by the mass public.

...Technicality aside Memory most often does refers to Volitile memory (yes RAM), but at the same time I have yet to remember a single instance when any console came out with more ram. I may be wrong but I'm willing to bet at most it has happened once since the release of PS3 or xBox 360. ...

Many consoles did (though not through new versions of a console), they were called 'memory expansion' cards.

That aside, the masses have a standard for memory/storage naming and products aimed at them should stick to these standards.

Its "technically" correct to call my car a horseless carriage that doesn't mean its an appropriate term to use. In 30 years of working with computers I've never seen anyone refer to a larger hard drive as increased memory.

I'm also curious about the point of increasing the hard drive size by a small amount unless you plan to use the PS3 as some kind of media server?

You may need extra space to install games if the PS3 moves onto 3D gaming but surely tetrabytes would be better than Gb? Then again, selling Gb 1st could be more profitable to Sony in the long run.

I have to agree. What I really want to see is the Emotion Engine make a come back, I miss playing some of my PS2 games. And Actually I don't think you'll need bigger hard drives even for 3D games, the model data doesn't change. You may need more processing power and/or better GPU (which may not be an issue for the PS3 anyway)... but it really shouldn't take up more space (than it already does).

It has always been a marketing ploy, PS3 and xBox are constantly releasing new consoles with bigger hard drives. It has left something of a bad taste with me ever since they removed the Emotion Engine...

Yes, you can get a 500GB 3.5 hard drive for 60 dollars... but a 2.5 which is the PS3 specification (a laptop hard drive) is 500 dollars for a 500 gig and $300+ for 300 gigs.

Finally its not misleading, Memory is memory, the ability for your computer to recall data. If you have taken Computer Science or did a simple wiki search you will know there are at least 3 kinds of MEMORY. Processor, Ram, and Hard Drive. And since the dawn of the PS3, xbox360 Memory has ALWAYS = Hard Drive for consoles... Kids do your research.

While I do agree with you that a hard drive IS a form of memory, I still find it misleading to call it such. A hard drive is a permanent form of memory while RAM is temporary, but outside of computer sciences a HD is rarely referred to as memory.

Also, 2.5" hard drives do NOT cost that much. You can get a good WD 320gig 2.5" notebook drive for $70.

While I do agree with you that a hard drive IS a form of memory, I still find it misleading to call it such. A hard drive is a permanent form of memory while RAM is temporary, but outside of computer sciences a HD is rarely referred to as memory.

Also, 2.5" hard drives do NOT cost that much. You can get a good WD 320gig 2.5" notebook drive for $70.

Darn, you are correct my friend. For some reason last time I went hunting for 2.5s around 300-500 gig range I only saw 300 to 500 dollar drives but you can indeed find a good WD 2.5 drive for 50-80 dollars touche'.

In the end it doesn't really matter how big the hard drive is, just go out and buy a new one if you are really feeling envious. I have an 80 gig on my PS3 and it is way more than I need for any of my games at the moment. And honestly the only people I am jealous of are the ones that have the hardware emotion engine... I have PS2 emulation...

Yeah notebook drives are fairly inexpensive nowadays, and sony is really overcharging for that extra 40 gigs. I can see how it's smart business to do that but... at the same time if they want to claim to be a media station they should really offer a 300+ gig version. I bet they're getting these 160 gig drives for like $20, and then charging you $200 for it.

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